The rich grow richer ...
The evangelicals have their judges and
A sec of education dismantling public education ...
The malcontents have a new lease for bigotry and racism.
It will take a mighty effort for this nation
To find its better angels
As the evil angels have hit us with a vengeance.
Stranger Things, indeed.
The Liar in Chief has opened the gate
And hell is pouring through.
Lots of people profit from hell.
Always have, always will.
Hell offers and hell delivers.
For the time being.
But only and ultimately only to destroy.
... Everything.
Hell's version of creation.
Not light, but pitch dark death.
The death of faith, hope and love.
The end of grace, mercy and peace.
It has always been this way.
And only with effort can we find again
Our better angels.
It can be done.
It has been done.
It will be done.
And with tremendous effort.
With terrible damage already inflicted.
Before the demons take flight.
To my friends and family, remain faithful.
Stay engaged.
And vote ... for heaven's sake, vote.
No one's perfect, but the philosophy of
Our better angels is clear:
Freedom:
For women to choose.
For marriage equality.
For better wages and better schools.
For universal health care.
For our National Parks.
For the whales and the wolves.
For all of God's creatures, great and small.
Thy Kingdom come.
Thy will be done.
On earth as it is in heaven.
Showing posts with label freedom. Show all posts
Showing posts with label freedom. Show all posts
Friday, July 19, 2019
Friday, July 5, 2019
All We have to Fear is Freedom
As best as I can tell, evangelicals fear freedom:
Their opposition to abortion is less a care for the fetus than a fear of a woman's freedom to choose. They can't really say that, so they dress it all up in a pretended care for the unborn.
Their opposition to euthanasia is less a care for life than a fear of someone's freedom to choose.
Their support of the death penalty, a tit for tat response, requires no thought, and no care for justice, because justice demands thought, and thought requires freedom. The criminal violated the law, as they see it, and while that's true, the evangelical is content to see the death penalty as th final elimination of freedom - theirs in the deliberative process and that of the criminal.
Their labeling of climate change as a hoax is less a regard for truth, or God's purposes, or whatever, as it is a fear of responsibility, which is an element of freedom.
Their love of the military stems from their fear of the other's freedom, and the need to build a wall against the other's freedom, whether that freedom be a mother and a child crossing the border or Iran building its own nuclear weapons. The evangelical cannot allow that kind of freedom, so they join the military and learn how to kill freedom for others, even as they salute and march in lockstep with one another, having long ago surrendered their freedom to half-wit preachers, narcissistic politicians and their "almighty" gawd.
Their approval of fascism is linked to their need for order, complete order, an order that no longer needs thinking, because thinking requires freedom, the freedom to consider choices and options, and that's deeply disturbing to the evangelical mind. There is only one way to interpret the Bible, only one way to worship, only one way to live. In that kind of mindset, freedom is a bother, a threat.
Their need for a "sovereign" god who approves of rape is driven by their fear of freedom ... there has to be plan for all of this suffering, so rather than challenging the nature of suffering, which requires their responsibility, and likely requires regard for the woman/girl and her life, and her right to choose, they lay it all at the feet of god, walk away, as Pilate did, washing their hands of responsibility, care, concern and love, and then sanctimoniously tell the girl that her pregnancy is of god, and she darn well better carry that fetus to term.
And with that, not even their god has any more freedom. And without freedom, there is no love; only rules and regulations, guns and violence, enforced by fear, the fear of freedom.
Their opposition to abortion is less a care for the fetus than a fear of a woman's freedom to choose. They can't really say that, so they dress it all up in a pretended care for the unborn.
Their opposition to euthanasia is less a care for life than a fear of someone's freedom to choose.
Their support of the death penalty, a tit for tat response, requires no thought, and no care for justice, because justice demands thought, and thought requires freedom. The criminal violated the law, as they see it, and while that's true, the evangelical is content to see the death penalty as th final elimination of freedom - theirs in the deliberative process and that of the criminal.
Their labeling of climate change as a hoax is less a regard for truth, or God's purposes, or whatever, as it is a fear of responsibility, which is an element of freedom.
Their love of the military stems from their fear of the other's freedom, and the need to build a wall against the other's freedom, whether that freedom be a mother and a child crossing the border or Iran building its own nuclear weapons. The evangelical cannot allow that kind of freedom, so they join the military and learn how to kill freedom for others, even as they salute and march in lockstep with one another, having long ago surrendered their freedom to half-wit preachers, narcissistic politicians and their "almighty" gawd.
Their approval of fascism is linked to their need for order, complete order, an order that no longer needs thinking, because thinking requires freedom, the freedom to consider choices and options, and that's deeply disturbing to the evangelical mind. There is only one way to interpret the Bible, only one way to worship, only one way to live. In that kind of mindset, freedom is a bother, a threat.
Their need for a "sovereign" god who approves of rape is driven by their fear of freedom ... there has to be plan for all of this suffering, so rather than challenging the nature of suffering, which requires their responsibility, and likely requires regard for the woman/girl and her life, and her right to choose, they lay it all at the feet of god, walk away, as Pilate did, washing their hands of responsibility, care, concern and love, and then sanctimoniously tell the girl that her pregnancy is of god, and she darn well better carry that fetus to term.
And with that, not even their god has any more freedom. And without freedom, there is no love; only rules and regulations, guns and violence, enforced by fear, the fear of freedom.
Friday, March 23, 2018
Can't We All Just Get Along?
Can't we all just get along?
Good question, for sure.
But history doesn't offer much hope.
Cain killed Able.
Aaron crafted the Golden Calf.
The king threw Jeremiah into the well.
The Apostle Paul's vision of inclusion:
Met heavy resistance in the mother church.
Paul choose grace; others choose to build a wall.
Luther and the Holy Roman Empire and its Holy Church.
The Colonies and Britain.
Hitler and Churchill.
FDR and Big Biz.
Martin Luther King, Jr. and segregation.
Franklin Graham and William Barber.
The fault lines are real, and mostly severe:
The kind of world we choose to own.
The values we uphold.
LGBTQ rights?
Or condem them to exclusion?
The right of a woman to choose abortion?
Or criminalize all of it, and its providers?
Women's rights to life and liberty and limb?
Or the men who would abuse them for power?
NRA?
ERA?
MAGA? or ...
"America! America! God mend thine every flaw"
"We need more time to help some resolve the matter,"
Said I of LGBTQ rights some many years ago.
When a dear friend, said of her gay brother:
"But he has no more time."
Everyone told Martin Luther King, Jr. to be patient.
But too many people were ending up as patients.
Clubbed senseless, or chewed up by dogs.
Burnings, bombings and lynchings.
The Apostle Paul and the mother church never found the middle way.
And the fault lines of exclusion/inclusion remain frustratingly tense.
The Book of Acts tells the tale:
The Mother Church on the one hand.
The Roman Imperial Cult on the other.
Rome and Jerusalem were good together:
When it came to getting rid of Jesus.
And when it came to crushing the gospel.
The cults of Rome and the righteous cicumcized loved large gatherings: where the mob could
Outshout Paul and call for his death.
Good question, for sure.
But history doesn't offer much hope.
Cain killed Able.
Aaron crafted the Golden Calf.
The king threw Jeremiah into the well.
The Apostle Paul's vision of inclusion:
Met heavy resistance in the mother church.
Paul choose grace; others choose to build a wall.
Luther and the Holy Roman Empire and its Holy Church.
The Colonies and Britain.
Hitler and Churchill.
FDR and Big Biz.
Martin Luther King, Jr. and segregation.
Franklin Graham and William Barber.
The fault lines are real, and mostly severe:
The kind of world we choose to own.
The values we uphold.
LGBTQ rights?
Or condem them to exclusion?
The right of a woman to choose abortion?
Or criminalize all of it, and its providers?
Women's rights to life and liberty and limb?
Or the men who would abuse them for power?
NRA?
ERA?
MAGA? or ...
"America! America! God mend thine every flaw"
"We need more time to help some resolve the matter,"
Said I of LGBTQ rights some many years ago.
When a dear friend, said of her gay brother:
"But he has no more time."
Everyone told Martin Luther King, Jr. to be patient.
But too many people were ending up as patients.
Clubbed senseless, or chewed up by dogs.
Burnings, bombings and lynchings.
The Apostle Paul and the mother church never found the middle way.
And the fault lines of exclusion/inclusion remain frustratingly tense.
The Book of Acts tells the tale:
The Mother Church on the one hand.
The Roman Imperial Cult on the other.
Rome and Jerusalem were good together:
When it came to getting rid of Jesus.
And when it came to crushing the gospel.
The cults of Rome and the righteous cicumcized loved large gatherings: where the mob could
Outshout Paul and call for his death.
I hurt for those who seek a middle ground.
A middle way ...
Things upon which we might agree?
Or are we fated/determined/sin-driven:
To be at odds in our quest to be free?
A middle way ...
Things upon which we might agree?
Or are we fated/determined/sin-driven:
To be at odds in our quest to be free?
Saturday, January 28, 2017
The Doors Are Slamming Shut
Can you hear it America?
The Doors.
The Doors are being slammed shut.
And sealed tight.
Executive Orders.
And Christian Power.
The Doors are slamming shut.
One-by-one.
Slammed and sealed.
Guarded by doers of good.
"There will be none of that here," they proclaim.
With giddiness and pride.
"We'll have none of that, for we would be pure."
Purity, as they see it, always demands death.
The death of freedom and thought.
Because thought is the bulwark of freedom.
Kill the thought.
Kill the thinker.
And freedom goes away.
And power rises up.
Beware, godly power.
Beware, the power of purity.
Can you hear it America?
The doors are being slammed shut!
The Doors.
The Doors are being slammed shut.
And sealed tight.
Executive Orders.
And Christian Power.
The Doors are slamming shut.
One-by-one.
Slammed and sealed.
Guarded by doers of good.
"There will be none of that here," they proclaim.
With giddiness and pride.
"We'll have none of that, for we would be pure."
Purity, as they see it, always demands death.
The death of freedom and thought.
Because thought is the bulwark of freedom.
Kill the thought.
Kill the thinker.
And freedom goes away.
And power rises up.
Beware, godly power.
Beware, the power of purity.
Can you hear it America?
The doors are being slammed shut!
Monday, October 27, 2008
I Have a Dream
I remember when John Kennedy ran for President. Some Protestant folks were adamant: “If a Catholic becomes President, the Pope will run the country.”
Yesterday, on radio, I heard a lovely, elderly white woman say, “If a Black man becomes President, …”
I’ll let you fill in the blank. What she said was irrational and deeply troubling. She wasn’t proud of it – that was obvious - but there it was – this incredibly ugly thought.
I write as a Christian, a man of faith, who knows the power of deep-seated ideologies – like anti-Catholicism, or any of the various forms of racism and prejudice that mar our character.
None of it makes any sense, but somehow or other, our minds, our souls, are capable of harboring the senseless, and believing it to be true.
Our great nation is broad-minded and generous – we are America the Land of the Free … our Statue of Liberty stands witness to a universal welcome – that in this great Republic, every human being can find a home and a future, regardless of race, creed or color.
This is what makes America great.
I end with some lines from the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr., and his “I Have a Dream” speech:
I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.
...
And when this happens, when we allow freedom to ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God's children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual, "Free at last! free at last! thank God Almighty, we are free at last!"
Saturday, November 17, 2007
We Need a Master
The Rev. Dr. Samuel Shoemaker … Episcopal priest, co-founder of AA and Faith at Work … one of the spiritual giants of the church, wrote:
“… man needs a master. If he is not to have a fellow-man for a master, with all the harm that comes both to tyrant and to slave in such a relation, he must accept a Master Whose lordship is always just, and always beneficent, while often running counter to human desires.”
Someone said to me years ago, “To be mastered by the Master is to be the freest of the free.”
To give our lives to Jesus … to utterly and forever surrender to Him … that He might master us, for He alone knows us truly, who we are, just as we are, and what we can be. And in surrendering to Him, we are no longer our own, but His, and in being His, our life is truly our own.
Here’s the Prayer of Surrender: “LORD Jesus Christ, Son of the Living God, I give myself to you in faith and obedience.”
For a little more info on Rev. Shoemaker, please visit: http://www.aabibliography.com/shoemaker/shoemakerdickb.html
“… man needs a master. If he is not to have a fellow-man for a master, with all the harm that comes both to tyrant and to slave in such a relation, he must accept a Master Whose lordship is always just, and always beneficent, while often running counter to human desires.”
Someone said to me years ago, “To be mastered by the Master is to be the freest of the free.”
To give our lives to Jesus … to utterly and forever surrender to Him … that He might master us, for He alone knows us truly, who we are, just as we are, and what we can be. And in surrendering to Him, we are no longer our own, but His, and in being His, our life is truly our own.
Here’s the Prayer of Surrender: “LORD Jesus Christ, Son of the Living God, I give myself to you in faith and obedience.”
For a little more info on Rev. Shoemaker, please visit: http://www.aabibliography.com/shoemaker/shoemakerdickb.html
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